Mesbah 1 is an Iranian anti aircraft artillery system developed to defend against incoming

cruise missiles A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhe ...

. It was unveiled in 2010 by Iranian defense minister

Ahmad Vahidi Ahmad Vahidi ( fa, احمد وحیدی, born 27 June 1958) is an Iranian military commander of the Revolutionary Guards and current Minister of Interior since August 25, 2021. In addition, he is currently member of the Expediency Discernment Cou ...

and hit its intended target successfully in the test. Production started some months later.

Design

Mesbah uses 4 Iranian built Russian

ZU-23-2 The ZU-23-2, also known as ZU-23, is a Soviet towed 23×152mm anti-aircraft twin-barreled autocannon. ZU stands for ''Zenitnaya Ustanovka'' (Russian: Зенитная Установка) – anti-aircraft mount. The GRAU index is 2A13. Developm ...

installed on a rotatable mount. Each autocannon has its own feed magazine. Each ZU-23-2 has a reported fire rate of 2000 rpm. But surprisingly the whole system is reported to have a rate of 4000 rpm instead of 8000. This is probably because developers wanted it to save ammunition. The mount can rotate in different angles but the exact degrees are unknown. The system uses Radar and IR/Optical sensors to find its target automatically. Its radar is described as a 3D flat-antenna radar with a good accuracy that finds and traces the target and gives its position to the

fire control system A fire-control system (FCS) is a number of components working together, usually a gun data computer, a director, and radar, which is designed to assist a ranged weapon system to target, track, and hit a target. It performs the same task as a h ...

. Mesbah is described being able to engage both fixed and rotary wing aircraft and cruise missiles in low and very low altitudes. Its automatic control system makes it need less crew to operate and its sophisticated tracking and tracing algorithms makes it able to engage small targets like incoming missiles.

Operators

References

External links

Video of the system
{{Weapons of Iran Anti-aircraft guns Weapons of Iran Military equipment introduced in the 2010s

Design

Operators

See also

References

External links